SPEECH 


T.  L.  CLIJSGMAN,  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA, 


DEFENCE  OF  THE  SOUTH  AGAINST  THE  AGGRESSIVE  MOVEMENT    OF  THE 

NORTH. 


Delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  January  22, 1850. 


The  House  being  in  Committee  of  the  Whole,  on  the  State  of  the  Union,  Mr.  Boyd,  of  Kentucky,  in 
the  chair. 

Mr.  Clingman  said,  that  the  committee  was  well  aware  that  he  had,  on  yester- 
day, intimated  a  purpose  to  discuss  the  questions  involved  in  the  propositions  rela- 
ting to  the  Mexican  territory.  That  subject  was  regarded  by  the  whole  country  as 
one  of  such  immense  importance  that  he  offered  no  apology  for  debating  it.  To 
prevent  misconception,  (sai'd  he)  I  ?ay  in  advance,  that  I  have  great  confidence  in 
the  judgment,  integrity,  and  patriotism  of  the  President.  I  further  admit  fully  the 
right  of  the  citizens  of  each  State,  to  settle  for  themselves  all  such  domestic  questions  as 
that  referred  to  in  the  message.  But  who  are  the  people  entitled  so  to  decide,  as  well 
as  the  time  and  manner  of  admission  and  boundary  of  new  States,  are  in  themselves 
questions  fo  the  judgment  of  Congress  under  all  the  circumstances  of  each  case. 
The  territory  of  Louisiana,  our  first  foreign  acquisition,  was  retained  nearly  ten 
years  in  that  condition  before  it  was  allowed  to  form  a  State  constitution.  In  the 
case  of  Texas — her  people  being  composed  almost  entirely  of  citizens  of  the  United 
States,  and  having  had  a  State  government  of  their  own  lor  ten  years — she  was  ad- 
mitted at  once  as  a  State  into  the  Union.  In  the  present  case,  there  are  considera- 
tions of  the  greatest  importance  connected  directly  and  indirectly  with  our  action  on 
this  subject.  While  adverting  to  them,  as  fully  as  the  time  limited  by  our  rules  will 
admit,  I  ask  the  attention  of  the  House. 

With  reference  to  this  matter,  I  was  placed  at  a  disadvantage  before  the  country 
by  a  publication  made  some  time  since.  It  is  generally  known  that  there  was,  on 
the  Saturday  evening  before  the  time  for  the  assembling  of  the  House,  a  prelimina- 
ry meeting  or  caucus  of  the  Whig  members.  The  proceedings  of  such  meetings 
have  usually  been  kept  private.  Contrary,  however,  to  the  former  usage  in  this 
respect,  some  individual  present  furnished  to  one  of  the  New  York  papers  what 
purported  to  be  a  report  of  the  proceedings.  This  report  being  in  some  respects 
authentic,"  was  copied  into  other  papers.  The  writer  gave  very  fully  the  speeches 
of  those  persons  whose  views. coincided  with  his  own;  but,  though  he  made  a  refer- 
ence to  my  position,  he  did  not  think  proper  to  set  out  what  I  did  say,  so  as  to  make 
that  position  at  all  understood.  It  will  be  remembered  by  those  present  on  that  oc- 
casion, that,  at  the  very  outset  of  my  remarks,  I  stated  that  I  had  that  morning  had 
a  very  full  and  free  conference  with  the'  gentleman  from  Georgia,  [Mr.  Toombs,] 
who  had  moved  the  resolution;  that  tb*re  was,  in  relation  to  the  whcte  subject  em- 
braced in  it,  as  well  as  with  reference  to  the  mode  of  action  proper  to  be  adopted  by 

Gideom,  &  Co.,  Primers. 


the  South,  an  entife  agreament  between  that  gentleman  and  mjj^lf.  In  fact,  that 
there  was  not,  as  far  as  I  knew,  any  difference  of  opinion  between  us,  except  as  to 
the  expediency  of  making  the  issue  at  that  time,  and  that  I  thought  it  preferable  to 
await  legislative  aciion  and  stand  on  the  defensive  purely.  This,  amon°-  other  rea- 
sons then  given,  induced  me  to  request  the  withdrawal  of  the  resolution.  It  is 
proper  that  I  should  say  that,  in  my  interview  that  morning  with  the  gentleman  from 
Geogia,  and  with  his  colleague,  [Mr.  Stephens,]  I  gave  my  reasons  at  leno-th, 
founded  chiefly  on  my  recent  observation  of  the  state  of  public  sentiment  in  the 
North,  for  believing  that  a  collision  was  inevitable,  and  that  the  sooner  it  came  on 
the  better  for  all  parties;  but  that  to  enable  us  to  make  our  demonstration  in  the  most 
imposing  and  successful  mode,  it  would  be  better  to  await  the  organization  of  the 
House.  I  expressed  the  fear  that  if  we  moved  without  the  concurrence  at  the  out- 
set of  a  majority  of  the  southern  members,  we  might  place  ourselves  at  a  disadvan- 
tage before  the  public,  and  prevent  our  uniting  the  whole  South  in  such  a  course  of 
action  as  it  might  be  found  expedient  to  adopt. 

Looking  over  the  whole  ground,  however,  I  am  not  at  all  dissatisfied  with  the 
course  which  things  took.  There  has  been  no  such  division  at  the  South  as  would 
be  at  all  likely  <o  impair  efficient  action  hereafter.  From  the  tone  of  the  southern 
press,  as  well  as  from  other  indications,  it  is  obvious  that  the  South  will,  at  an  early 
day,  be  sufficiently  united  to  insure  the  success  of  whatever  measures  it  ma}' be  ne- 
cessary to  adopt  to  protect  ourselves  from  the  aggression  menaced  by  the  North. 
As  to  the  election  of  a  Speaker,  in  the  present  condition  of  the  House  and  the  coun- 
try, I  have  never  considered  it  of  the  slightest  moment  to  either  political  party,  or 
to  either  section  of  the  Union.  A  Speaker  without  a  majority  of  the  House  would 
be  of  no  advantage  to  the  Administration,  nor  could  any  mere  arrangement  of  com- 
mittees materially  affect  now  the  action  on  the  slave  question. 

Those',  Mr.  Chairman,  who  have  observed  my  course  heretofore,  know  well  that 
I  have  not  sought  to  produce  agitation  on  this  subject.  Six  years  ago,  when  I  first 
took  a  seat  on  this  floor,  believing  that  the  famous  twenty-first  rule  had  been  gotten 
up  merely  as  a  fancy  matter,  which  was  productive  only  of  ill  feeling  and  irritation 
between  different  sections,  I  both  voted  and  spoke  against  it,  and  was  then  regarded 
as  responsible  to  a  great  extent  for  its  defeat.  I  then  stated,  during  the  discussion, 
that  if  without  cause  we  kept  up  a  state  of  hostility  between  the  North  and  the 
South,  until  a  practical  question  arose  like  that  presented  when  Missouri  was  admit- 
ted, (for  I  then  saw  the  Texas  annexation  in  the  future,)  the  "greatest  possible  mis- 
chief might  ensue."  I  went  on  also,  in  the  course  of  my  nr^nment,  to  say  that  sla- 
very could  not  be  abolished  in  this  District  without  a  dissolution  of  the  Union.  Two 
years  since,  when  it  had  become  certain  that  we  were  at  the  close  of  the  then  exist- 
ing war  to  obtain  territorv,  I  endeavored  to  place  the  question  on  grounds  where  the 
North  might  meet  us;  conceding,  for  the  sake  of  argument,  that  the  Government 
had  complete  jurisdiction  over  the  territory.  I  endeavored  to  show,  that  while  it 
might  be  justified  in  dividing  the  territory,  it  could  not  exclude  us  from  the  whole 
without  a  palpable  violation  of  the  Constitution.  I  am  sorry  to. say,  however,  that 
my  effort,  though  well  meant,  did  not  produce  the  slightest  effect  upon  the  action  of 
any  one  gentleman  of  my  own  party  from  the  North.  On  this  side  of  the  House, 
they  regularly  voted  that  the  North  should  have  the  whole  of  the  territor  ,  and  went 
against  any  compromise.  I  regret  to  be  compelled  to  say,  that  instead  of  showing 
themselves  in  any  respect  conservative,  as  I  used  to  consider  them,  the  north- 
ern Whig  members  proved  themselves,  on  this,  the  great  question,  eminently  de- 
structive. 

To  those  gentlemen  from  the  North,  who  aided  us  in  an  attempt  to  settle  the  ques- 
tion in  some  manner  not  disgraceful  or  destructive  to  us,  I  tender  my  thanks.  la 
standing  by  the  rights  of  the  South,  they  have  shown  themselves  friends  of  the  Con- 
stitution and  of  the  Union. 


3 

Sir,  the  force  and  extent  of  the  present  anti-slavery  movement  of  the  North  is  no 
understood  by  the  South.  Until  within  the  last  few  months,  I  had  supposed  that 
even  if  California  and  New  Mexico  should  come  in  as  free  States,  the  agitation  would 
subside  so  as  to  produce  no  further  action.  A  few  months'  travel  in  the  interior  of 
the  North  has  changed  my  opinion.  Such  is  now  the  condition  of  public  sentiment 
there,  that  the  making  of  the  Mexican  territory  all  free,  in  any  mode,  would  be  re- 
garded as  an  anti-slavery  triumph,  and  would  accelerate  the  general  movement 
against  us.  It  is  not  difficult  to -perceive  how  that  state  of  public  sentiment  has  been 
produced  there.  The  old  abolition  societies  have  done  a  good  deal  to  poison  the 
popular  mind.  By  circulating  an  immense  number  of  inflammatory  pamphlets,  filled 
with  all  manner  of  falsehood  and  calumny  against  the  South,  its  institutions,  and  its 
men,  because  there  was  no  contradiction  in  that  quarter,  they  had  created  a  high  degree 
of  prejudice  against  us.  As  soon  as  it  became  probable  that  there  would  be  an  ac- 
quisition of  territory,  the  question  at  once  became  a  great  practical  one,  and  the  po- 
liticians immediately  took  the  matter  in  hand.  With  a  view  at  once  of  strengthen- 
ing their  position,  they  seized  upon  all  this  matter  which  the  abolition  societies 
(whose  aid  both  parties  courted  in  the  struggle)  had  furnished  from  time  to  time,  and 
diffused  and  strengthened  it  as  much  as  possible,  and  thereby  created  an  immense 
amount  of  hostility  to  southern  institutions.  Everything  there  contributes  to  this 
movement;  candidates  are  brought  out  by  the  caucus  system,  and  if  they  fail  to  take 
that  sectional  ground  which  is  deemed  strongest  there,  they  are  at  once  discarded. 
The  mode  of  nominating  candidates,  as  well  as  of  conducting  the  canvass,  is  de- 
structive of  anything  like  independence  in  the  representative.  They  do  not,  as  gen- 
tlemen often  do  in  the  South  and  West,  take  ground  against  the  popular  clamor,  and 
sustain  themselves  by  direct  appeals  to  the  intelligence  and  reason  of  their  constitu- 
ents. Almost  the  whole  of  the  northern  press  co-operated  in  the  movement,  with 
the  exception  of  the  New  York  Herald,  (which,  with  its  large  circulation,  published 
matter  on  both  sides,)  and  a  few  other  liberal  papers,  everything  favorable  to  the 
South  has  been  carefully  excluded  from  the  northern  papers.  By  these  combined 
efforts,  a  degree  of  feeling  and  prejudice  has  been  gotten  up  against  the  South,  which 
is  most  intense  in  all  the  interior. 

I  was  surprised  last  winter  to  hear  a  northern  Senator  say,  that  in  the  town  in 
which  he  lived  it  would  excite  great  astonishment  if  it  were  known  that  a  northern 
lady  would,  at  the  t'me  of  the  meeting  of  the  two  Houses,  walk  up  to  the  Capitol 
with  a  southern  Senator;  that  they  had  been  taught  to  consider  southerners  generally 
as  being  so  coarse  and  ruffianly  in  manner  that  a.  lady  would  not  trust  herself  in  such 
a  presence  This  anecdote,  sir,  does  not  present  too  strong  a  picture  of  the  condi- 
tion of  sentiment  in  portions  of  the  interior  of  the  northern  country.  How  far  gen- 
tlemen on  this  floor  are  to  be  influenced  in  their  action  by  such  a  state  of  opinion,  I 
leave  them  to  decide. 

The  great  principle  upon  which  the  northern  movement  rests,  which  is  already 
adopted  by  most  northern  politicians,  and  to  which  they  all  seem  likely  to  be  driven 
by  the  force  of  the  popular  current  there,  if  the  question  is  unsettled  till  the  next 
Congressional  election,  is  this:  That  the  Government  of  the  United  States  must  do 
nothing  to  sanction  slavery;  that  it  must  therefore  exclude  it  from  the  Territories; 
that  it  must  abolish  it  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  forts,  and  arsenals,  and  wherever 
it  has  jurisdiction.  Some,  too,  carrying  the  principle  to  its  extent,  insist  that  the 
coasting  slave  trade,  and  that  between  the  States,  should  also  be  abolished,  and  that 
slave  labor  should  not  be  tolerated  in  a  public  office  of  the  United  States,  such  as 
custom-houses,  post-offices,  and  the  like.  As  these  things  all  obviously  rest  on  the 
same  general  dogma,  it  is  clear  that  the  yielding  of  one  or  more  points  would  not 
check,  but  would  merely  accelerate,  the  general  movement  to  the  end  of  the  series. 
Before  this  end  was  reached,  they  would  probably  append,  as  a  corollary,  the  prin- 
ciple that  the  President  should  not  appoint  a  slaveholder  to  office.    It  is,  sir,  my  de- 


liberate  judgment  that,  in  the  present  temper  of  the  public  mind  at  the  North,  if  the 
territorial  question  remains  open  till  the  next  election,  few  if  any  gentlemen  will  get 
here  from  the  free  States  that  are  not  pledged  to  the  full  extent  of  the  abolition  plat- 
form. It  is,  therefore,  obviously  the  interest  of  all  of  us  to  settle  this  question  at  the 
present  session. 

That  the  general  principle  above  stated  is  at  war  with  the  whole  spirit  of  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States,  which  sanctions  slavery  in  several  of  its  provisions,  I 
need  not  argue  here.  Taking,  however,  a  practical  view  of  the  matter  in  contro- 
versy, look  for  a  moment  at  the  territorial  question,  the  great  issue  in  the  struggle. 
I  will  do  northern  gentlemen  on  this  floor  the  justice  to  admit  that  they  have  argued 
themselves  into  the  belief  that  they  are  right  in  claiming  the  whole  of  the  territory 
for  free  soil.  Let  me  state,  for  a  moment,  the  converse,  or  opposite  of  their  propo- 
sition. Suppose  it  were  to  be  claimed  that  no  one  should  be  allowed  to  go  into  this 
public  territory,  unless  he  carried  one  or  more  slaves  with  him,  it  might  then  be  said,  just 
as  gentlemen  now  tell  us.  that  it  would  be  perfectly  fair,  because  it  placed  every  man 
who  might  be  inclined  to  go  there  on  an  equal  footing,  and  might,  by  means  of  mak- 
ing thus  a  homogeneous  population,  advance  the  general  interest.  Northern  men 
would  at  once,  I  suppose,  object  to  this  arrangement.  Then  we  should  say  to  them, 
if  you  do  not  like  this  restriction,  let  it  be  settled,  then,  that  every  citizen  of  the 
United  States  may  go  into  the  common  territory  and  carry  slaves  or  not,  just  as  he 
pleases.  This  would  seem  to  be  a  perfectly  equitable  and  fair  arrangement.  North- 
ern men,  however,  object  to  this,  and  say  that  they  are  not  willing  to  live  in  a  ter- 
ritory where  others  own  slaves.  Then  we  of  the  South  say  to  them,  that  we  will 
consent  to  divide  the  territory,  and  limit  our  possession  with  slaves  to  a  part  of  it, 
and  allow  them  to  go  at  will  over  the  whole.  Even  to  this  they  object,  and  insist  that 
they  will  not  allow  us  to  occupy  one  foot  of  the  territory.  Remember,  sir,  that  this 
very  territory  was  acquired  by  conquest,  and  that  while  the  South,  according  to  its 
population,  would  have  been  required  to  furnish  only  one-third  of  the  troops,  it  in 
point  of  fact  did  furnish  two-thirds  of  the  men  that  made  the  conquest.  And  the 
North,  deficient  as  it  was  comparatively  in  the  struggle,  now  says  that  its  conscience, 
or  its  cupidity,  will  not  permit  us  to  have  the  smallest  portion  of  that  territory.  Why, 
sir  this  is  the  most  impudent  proposition  that  was  ever  maintained  by  any  respecta- 
ble body  of  men. 

Sir,  I  give  the.  North  full  credit  for  its  feelings  in  favor  of  liberty.  I  can  well  sup- 
pose that  northern  gentlemen  would  resist,  in  the  most  emphatic  manner,  the  at- 
tempt to  make  any  man  who  is  now  free  a  slave;  but  I  regard  them  as  too  intelligent 
to  believe  that  humanity,  either  to  the  slave  or  the  master,  requires  that  they  should 
be  pent  up  within  a  territory  which,  after  a  time,  will  be  insufficient  for  their  sub- 
sistence, and  where  they  must  perish  from  want,  or  from  the  collisi:  ns  that  would 
occur  between  the  races.  Nor  can  I  suppose  that  they  think  it  would  be  injurious 
to  New  Mexico  and  California  for  our  people  to  go  and  settle  among  thern.  Promi- 
nent northern  statesmen,  both  in  this  House  and  in  the  Senate,  have  described  the 
population  of  those  Territories,  and  have  represented  it  as  being  not  only  inferior  to 
those  Indian  tribes  that  we  know  most  of,  viz.,  the  Cherokees  and  Choctaws,  but  as 
being  far  below  the  Flat  Heads,  Black  Feet,  and  Snake  Indians.  I  cannot,  there- 
fore, suppose  that  they  really  believe  that  those  territories  would  be  injured  by  hav- 
ing infused  into  them  such  a  state  of  society  as  produces  such  persons  as  George 
Washington,  John  Marshall,  and  thousands  of  other  great  and  virtuous  men,  living 
and  dead.  Your  opposition  to  our  right  will  be  regarded  as  resting  on  the  lust  for 
political  power  of  your  politicians,  or  on  the  rapacity  of  your  people. 

The  idea  that  the  conquered  people  should  be  permitted  to  give  law  to  the  con- 
querors, is  so  preposterously  absurd,  that  I  do  not  intend  to  argue  it.  Doubtless 
these  people  would  be  willing,  not  only  to  exclude  slaveholders,  but  all  other  Amer- 
icans, if,  by  a  simple  vote,  they  were  allowed  to  do  so.     I  may  remark  further,  that 


but  for  the  anti-slavery  agitation,  our  southern  slaveholders  would  have  carried  their 
negroes  into  the  mines  of  California  in  such  numbers,  that  I  have  no  doubt  but  that 
the  majority  there  would  have  made  it  a  slaveholding  State.  We  have  been  de- 
prived of  all  chance  of  this  by  the  northern  movements,  and  by  the  action  of  this 
House,  which  has,  by  northern  votes,  repeatedly,  from  time  to  time,  passed  the 
Wilmot  proviso,  so  as  in  effect  to  exclude  our  institutions,  without  the  actual  passage 
of  a  law  for  that  purpose.  It  is  a  mere  farce,  therefore,  without  giving  our  people 
time  to  go  into  the  country,  if  they  desire  to  do  so,  to  allow  the  individuals  there, 
by  a  vote,  to  exclude  a  whole  class  of  our  citizens.  This  would  imply  that  the  ter- 
ritory belonged  to  the  people  there  exclusively,  and  not  to  all  the  people  of  the  Uni- 
ted States. 

Compared  with  this  great  question,  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Co- 
lumbia is  of  little  relative  moment.  One  effect,  however,  of  the  anti-slavery  agita- 
tion here  is  worthy  of  a  passing  notice.  Within  the  last  two  years,  since  the  matter 
has  become  serious,  it  has  seemed  not  improbable  that  the  seat  of  Government  might 
be  removed  from  the  District.  As  this  would  be  extremely  prejudicial  to  the- inter- 
ests of  the  citizens  here,  many  of  them  have  so  far  changed  in  their  feelings  as  to 
be  willing  to  allow  slavery  to  be  abolished,  yielding  to  the  force  of  the  pressure  from 
the  North;  besides,  so  many  of  their  slaves  are  from  time  to  time  taken  away  by  the 
abolitionists,  as  to  satisfy  them  that  such  property  here  is  almost  worthless.  A  great 
impression  was  made  on  them  by  the  coming  in  last  year  of  a  northern  ship,  and  its 
canying  away  seventy  slaves  at  once.  Seeing  that  there  was  no  chance  of  getting 
Congress  to  pass  any  adequate  law  for  their  protection,  as  most  of  the  States  have 
done,  they  seem  to  be  forced  to  assent  to  some  extent  to  the  northern  movement. 
Sir,  it  is  most  surprising  that  the  people  of  the  southern  States  should  have  borne, 
with  so  little  complaint,  the  loss  of  their  slaves  Incurred  by  the  action  of  the  free 
States.  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  provided  for  the  delivery  of  all  such 
fugitives,  and  Congress  passed  an  act  to  carry  it  into  effect;  but  recently,  most,  if 
not  all  of  the  northern  States,  have  completely  defeated  their  provisions,  by  forbid- 
ding any  one  of  their  citizens  to  aid  in  the  execution  of  the  law,  under  the  penalty 
of  fine  and  imprisonment  for  as  long  a  term  usually  as  five  years.  There  is  probably 
no  one  legal  mind  in  any  one  of  the  free  States  which  can  regard  these  laws  as  con- 
stitutional. For  though  the  States  are  not  bound  to  legislate  affirmatively  in  support 
of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  yet  it  is  clear  that  they  have  no  right  to 
pass  laws  to  obstruct  the  execution  of  constitutional  provisions.  Private  citizens  are 
not  usually  bound  to  be  active  in  execution  of  the  law;  but  if  two  or  more  combine 
to  prevent  the  execution  of  any  law,  they  are  subject  to  indictment  for  conspiracy 
in  all  countries  where  the  common  law  doctrines  prevail.  If  the  several  States  could 
rightfully  legislate  to  defeat  the  action  of  Congress,  they  might  thereby  completely 
nullify  most  of  its  laws.  In  this  particular  instance  such  has  been  the  result;  for, 
though  the  master  is  allowed  to  go  and  get  his  negro  if  he  can;  yet,  in  point  of  fact, 
it  is  well  known  that  the  free  negroes,  abolitionists,  and  other  disorderly  persons, 
acting  under  the  countenance  and  authority  of  the  State  laws,  are  able  usually  to 
overpower  the  master  and  prevent  his  recapture. 

The  extent  of  the  loss  to  the  South  may  be  understood  from  the  fact,  that  the 
number  of  runaway  slaves  now  in  the  North  is  stated  as  being  thirty  thousand;  worth, 
at  present  prices,  little  short  of  fifteen  millions  of  dollars.  Suppose  that  amount  of  pro- 
perty was  taken  away  from  the  North  by  the  Southern  States  acting  against  the  Consti- 
tution :  what  complaint  would  there  not  be;  what  memorials,  remonstrances,  and 
legislative  resolutions  would  come  down  upon  us?  How  would  this  Hall  be  filled 
with  lobby  members,  coming  here  to  press  their  claims  upon  Congress?  Why,  sir, 
many  of  the  border  counties  in  the  slaveholding  States  have  been  obliged  to  give 
up  their  slaves  almost  entirely.  It  was  stated  in  the  newspapers  the  other  day,  that 
a  few  counties  named,  in  Maryland,  had,  by  the  efforts  of  the  abolitionists  within  six 


months,  upon  computation,  lost  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  worth  of  slaves.  A 
gentleman  of  the  highest  standing,  from  Delaware,  assured  me  the  other  day  that 
that  little  State  lost,  each  year,  at  least  that  value  of  such  property  in  the  same  way. 
A  hundred  thousand  dollars  is  a  heavy  tax  to  be  levied  on  a  single  congressional 
district  by  the  abolitionists. 

Suppose  a  proportional  burden  was  inflicted  on  the  northern  States.  How  would 
Massachusetts  bear  the  loss  annually  of  one  million  one  hundred  thousand  dollars, 
not  only  inflicted  without  law,  but  against  an  express  provision  of  the  Constitution? 
We  may  infer  from  the  complaint  she  has  made  of  a  slight  inconvenience  imposed 
on  her  by  that  regulation  of  South  Carolina  which  prevented  ship-captains  from  car- 
rying free  negro  servants  to  Charleston. 

This  whole  action  on  the  part  of  the  North  is  not  only  in  violation  of  the  Consti- 
tution, but  seems  to  be  purely  wanton,  or  originating  in  malice  towards  the  South. 
It  is  obvious  that  they  do  not  want  our  slaves  among  them;  because  they  not  only 
make  no  adequate  provision  for  their  comfort,  but,  in  fact,  in  many  of  the  States, 
have  forbidden  free  negroes  to  come  among  them  on  pain  of  imprisonment,  &c.  It 
cannot  be  a  desire  to  liberate  slaves,  because  they  have  never,  to  my  knowledge,  at- 
tempted to  steal  negroes  from  Cuba  or  Brazil.  It  is  true,  however,  that  having  the 
right  now  to  come  among  us  both  by  land  and  water,  thej'  have  greater  advantages  and 
immunities.  For  if  they  went  into  a  foreign  country,  they  would  incur  the  risk  of 
being  shot  or  hanged,  as  robbers  and  pirates  usually  are. 

Sir,  if  any  evils  have  grown  out  of  the  existence  of  slavery,  they  have  not  at  least 
affected  the  North.  During  the  days  of  the  slave  trade,  which  (as  I  formerly  had  oc- 
casion to  remark)  was  continued  down  to  180S  by  New  England  votes  in  the  con- 
vention, the  northern  ship-owners  realized  large  profits  by  purchasing  negroes  on 
the  coast  of  Africa  at  thirty  or  forty  dollars  per  head,  and  selling  them  to  southern 
planters  for  several  hundred  dollars.  The  bringing  in  of  these  slaves  caused  large 
tracts  of  the  southern  country,  too  unhealthy  to  have  been  cleared  by  white  men, 
to  be  brought  under  profitable  cultivation.  The  price  of  cotton  has  thereby  been 
brought  down  from  fifty  to  ten  and  even  five  cents  per  pound.  An  immense 
amount  of  capital  and  labor  is  employed  profitably  in  its  manufacture  at  the 
North.  In  England,  also,  not  less  than  six  hundred  millions  of  dollars  is  thus  in- 
vested, and  a  vast  population  exists  by  being  employed  in  the  manufacture.  It  is 
ascertained  that  at  least  five  millions  of  white  persons,  in  Europe  and  this  country, 
get  their  employment,  are  fed,  and  exist,  on  the  manufacture  of  cotton  alone.  The 
cheap  southern  production  of  the  raw  material  not  only  is  the  means  of  thus  giving 
subsistence  to  a  great  portion  of  the  population  of  this  country  and  Europe,  but  is 
clothing  the  world  at  a  cheap  rate.  In  addition  to  cotton,  rice,  sugar,  coffee,  tobac- 
co, and  various  tropical  productions,  are  supplied  at  a  cheap  rate  for  northern  con- 
sumption. On  the  other  hand,  our .  slaves  seldom  come  in  competition  with  nor- 
thern labor,  and  are  good  consumers  of  its  productions.  While  the  North  has  deriv- 
ed these  great  advantages,  the  negroes  themselves  have  not  been  sufferers.  Their 
condition  not  only  compares  most  advantageously  with  that  of  the  laboring  popula- 
tion of  the  world,  but  is  in  advance  of  the  position  they  have  been  able,  at  any  lime, 
to  occupy  at  home.  <  The  researches  of"  Gliddon  and  other  antiquarians,  show  tLat 
four  thousand  years  ago  in  Africa  they  were  slaves,  and  as  black  as  they  now  are. 
Since  then,  in  that  country  where  they  were  placed  b}-  Providence,  and  where,  from 
their  peculiar  constitution,  they  enjoy  the  best  health,  they  have  existed  only  as 
savages.  They  are  there  continually  made  slaves  by  the  men  of  more  intelligent 
and  enterprising  races.  Nor  have  they  ever  gotten  out  of  the  tropical  parts  of  Afri- 
ca, except  when  they  were  carried  as  merchandise.  It  remains  to  be  proved,  how- 
ever, yet  to  the  world,  that  the  negro,  any  more  than  the  horse,  can  permanently  ex- 
ist, in  a  state  of  freedom,  out  of  the  tropical  regions.  Their  decay  at  the  North,  as 
well  as  other  circumstances  which  I  have  not  time  to  detail,  are  adverse  to  the  pro- 


position.  And  yet,  sir,  the  journals  of  the  North,  while  they  deny  that  the  French 
and  the  Germans,  the  most  enlightened  of  the  continental  nations  of  Europe,  are 
capable  of  freedom,  stoutly  maintain  that  the  negro  is;  the  negro,  who  has  never 
anywhere,  when  left  to  himself,  gotten  up  to  the  respectable  state  of  barbarism 
which  all  the  other  races  have  attained,  not  even  excepting  our  Indians  in  Mexico 
and  Peru. 

While  the  people'of  the  northern  States  and  the  negroes  have  been  benefitted,  lam 
not  prepared  to  admit  that  the  South  (if  injured  at  all)  has  suffered  as  generally  supposed. 
The  influx  of  foreign  emigrants,  and  some  other  circumstances  to  which  I  will  pre- 
sently advert,  have  in  some  respects  put  the  North  greatly  ahead.  'But  if  you  de- 
duct the  foreign  population  which  goes  chiefly  to  the  North — the  little  we  get  not  be- 
ing equal  to  that  portion  of  our  own  people  who  go  to  the  northwestern  States;  if 
you  deduct  this,  I  say,  it  will  be  found  that  the  white  population  of  all  the  slave- 
holding  States  has  increased  faster  than  that  of  the  free  States.  Owing  to  the  com- 
fortable condition  of  our  population,  if  there  had  been  no  emigration  from  abroad, 
the  descendants  of  our  portion  of  the  American  white  family  would  be  more  nume- 
rous than  the  northern.  Nor  is  it  true  that  we  are  the  poorer:  on  the  contrary,  if  we 
are  to  take  the  valuations  of  propertn  in  the  different  States  as  assessed  by  the  pub- 
lic officers,  it  appears  that  the  slaveholding  States  are  much  richer  in  proportion  to 
their  population  than  the  free.  Even  if  you  exclude  the  negroes  as  property,  and 
count  them  in  the  population,  it  appears  that  the  citizens  of  Virginia — the  oldest  of 
the  slave  States — are  richer  per  head  than  the  citizens  of  any  one  of  the  free  States. 
It, will  also  appear  that  the  slaveholding  States  have  vastly  less  pauperism  and  crime 
than  the  northern  States.  Looking,  therefore,  at  all  these  different  elements,  viz., 
greater  increase  of  population,  more  wealth,  and  less  poverty  and  crime,  we  have 
reason  to  regard  our  people  as  prosperous  and  happy. 

Sir,  I  have  not,  for  want  of  time,  gone  into  details  on  these  points,  but  contented 
myself  with  the  statement  of  those  general  views  which  every  candid  inquirer  will, 
I  am  satisfied,  find  to  be  true.  I  do  not  seek  to  make  comparisons  that  might  be 
regarded  as  invidious,  unless  by  way  of  defence  against  habitual  attacks  on  us; 
but  I  regard  it  as  right  to  say  on  this  occasion,  that  whether  considered  with  refer- 
ence to  the  physical  comfort  of  the  people,  or  a  high  state  of  public  and  private  mor- 
als, elevated  sense  of  honor,  and  of  all  generous  emotions,  I  have  no  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  a  higher  state  of  civilation  either  now  exists  elsewhere,  or  has  existed  at 
any  time  in  the  past,  than  is  presented  by  the  southern  States  of  the  Union. 

When  we  look  to  foreign  countries,  these  views  are  confirmed  t.nd  sustained. 
Brazil,  with  a  population  of  two  slaves  to  one  freeman,  is  the  most  prosperous  of  the 
South  American  States,  and  the, only  one  which  has  a  stable  political  system.  Cuba 
is  greatly  in  advance  of  the  other  West  India  islands,  though  St.  Domingo  and  Ja- 
maica once  equalled  her  before  the  emancipation  of  their  slaves.  Besides  the  ex- 
pense of  maintaining  her  government  at  home,  Cuba  pays  Spain  a  revenue  of  nearly 
fourteen  millions.  This  is  a  greater  sum  for  her  population  than  two  hundred  mil- 
lions would  be  for  the  United  States.  Could  our  people  in  addition  to  the  expense 
of  our  State  governments,  pay  six  times  as  much  as  the  .Federal  Government  has 
ever  yet  raised  by  impost  and  taxes?  That  Cuba  should  be  able  to  bear  this  burden 
and  still  prosper,  is  evidence  of  the  high  productiveness  of  the  system. 

In  spite,  however,  of  these  great  facts,  which  ought  to  strike  all  impartial  minds, 
the  course  of  the  North  has  been  constantly  aggressive  on  this  question.  The  ordi- 
nance of  17S7,  adopted  cotemporaneously  with  the  Constitution,  made  the  territory 
north  of  the  Ohio  free,  and  left  that  south  of  the  river  slaveholding,  giving  the  North 
more  than  half  of  all  the  existing  territory.  When  Louisiana  was  acquired,  slavery 
could  legally  exist  in  every  part  of  it.  The  State  of  Missouri  having  formed  a  re- 
publican constitution,  proposed  to  come  into  the  Union,  but  the  North  resisted  her 
application.     Though  her  constitution  recognising  slavery  was  precisely  like  those 


8 

of  a  majority  of  the  old  States,  yet  they,  against  all  constitutional  principle,  because 
they  had  the  power  in  one  branch  of  Congress,  obstinately  refused  her  admission, 
until  it  was  provided  by  act  of  Congress  that  no  other  slave  State  should  exist 
north  of  36°  30'.  By  that  means,  after  leaving  the  South  only  territory  for  a 
single  State,  (Arkansas,)  they  acquired  enough  in  extent  to  make  ten  or  fifteen  large 
States.  Now,  encouraged  by  their  former  success,  and  having  become  relatively 
stronger,  they  claim  the  whole  of  the  territory, 

Should  we  give  way,  what  is  to  be  the  result?  California,  Oregon,  New  Mexico, 
Deseret,  and  Minesota,  will  come  into  the  Union  in  less  than  five  years,  giving  the 
North  a  clear  majority  of  ten  or  fifteen  votes  in  the  Senate.  The  census  of  the 
coming  year  will,  under  the  new  apportionment,  give  them  nearly  two  to  one  in  this 
House.  With  immense  controlling  majorities  in  both  branches,  will  they  not  at 
once,  by  act  of  Congress,  abolish  slavery  in  the  States?  Mr.  Adams,  who,  in  his 
day,  controlled  northern  opinion  on  this  question,  said  that  there  were  twenty  pro- 
visions of  the  Constitution  which,  under  certain  circumstances,  would  give  Congress 
the  power.  Would  not  this  majority  find  the  power,  as  easily  as  they  have  done  in 
their  State  Legislatures,  where  they  have  complete  sway,  to  nullify  the  provision  of 
the  Constitution  for  the  protection  of  fugitive  slaves?  Have  not  prominent  northern 
politicians,  of  the  highest  positions  and  the  greatest  influence,  whose  names  are  well 
known  to  all  gentlemen  on  this  floor,  already  declared  that  there  is  nothing  in  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  which  obstructs  or  ought  to  obstruct  the  abolition 
of  slavery  by  Congress  in  the  States?  Supposing,  however,  this  should  not  occur, 
in  twenty  years  or  less,  without  new  acquisitions  of  territory,  they  would  get  the 
power,  by  the  coming  in  of  new  free  States,  to  amend  the  Constitution  for  that  pur- 
pose. But  I  have  no  doubt,  sir,  that  other  acquisitions  of  territory  will  be  made. 
Probably,  after  the  next  Presidential  election  we  shall  get  that  part  of  Mexico  which 
lies  along  the  Gulf,  as  far  as  Vera  Cruz;  and  from  which,  though  well  suited  to  the 
profitable  employment  of  slave  labor,  we  should  be  excluded,  nevertheless,  by  the 
adoption  of  the  principle  that  slavery  should  not  be  extended  in  area.  Conceding, 
however,  that  I  am  wrong  in  both  these  suppositions,  and  that  Congress  would 
neither  violate  the  Constitution  nor  amend  it  thus:  what  are  we  to  expect?  Slavery 
is  to  be  kept,  they  say,  where  it  now  is;  and  we  are  to  be  surrounded  with  free 
States.  These  States  not  only  prohibit  the  introduction  of  slaves,  but  also  of  free 
negroes,  into  their  borders.  Of  course  the  whole  negro  population  is  to  be  hereafter 
confined  to  the  territory  of  the  present  fifteen  slave  States.  That  population  in 
twenty-five  years  will  amount  to  seven  or  eight  millions,  and  in  fifty  years  to  fifteen 
millions.  However  dense  the  population  might  become,  the  negroes  will  not  be 
gotten  away,  but  the  wealthier  portion  of  the  white  population  (I  mean  such  as  were 
able  to  emigrate)  would  leave  the  territory.  The  condition  of  the  South  would,  for 
a  time,  be  that  of  Ireland;  and  soon,  by  the  destruction  of  the  remnants  of  the  white 
population,  become  that  of  St.  Domingo.  There  are  those  now  living  who  would 
probably  see  this  state  of  things;  but  it  would  be  certain  to  overtake  our  children 
or  grandchildren.  These  facts  are  staring  us  in  the  face  as  distinctly  as  the  sun  in 
the  heavens  at  noonday.  Northern  men  not  only  admit  it  but,  constantly,  in  their 
public  speeches,  avow  it  to  be  their  purpose  to  produce  this  very  state  of  things.  If 
we  express  alarm  at  the  prospect,  they  seek  to  amuse  us  with  eulogies  on  the  bless- 
ings of  the  Federal  Union,  and  ask  us  to  be  still  for  a  time.  They  do  well,  for  it  is 
true  that  communities  have  usually  been  destroyed  by  movements  which,  in  the 
beginning,  inflicted  no  immediate  injury,  and  which  were  therefore  acquiesced  in 
till  they  had  progressed  too  far  to  be  resisted.  They  have,  too,  constant  examples 
in  the  conduct  of  brute  animals,  that  do  not  struggle  against  evils  until  they  begin 
to  feel  pain.  They  are  doubtless,  also,  encouraged  to  hope  for  our  submission  on 
account  of  our  acquiescence  under  their  former  wrongs.  They  know  that  the 
evils  already  inflicted  on  us,  to  which   I  have  referred,  greatly  exceed  in  amount 


any  injury  that  Great  Britain  attempted  when  she  drove  the  colonies  into  resistance. 
Besides,  sir,  their  aggressions  have  infinitely  less  show  of  constitutional  right  or 
color  of  natural  justice.  But  what  they  now  propose  is  too  palpable  even  for  our 
southern  generosity.  If  after  having  been  free  for  seventy  years,  the  southern  States 
were  to  consent  to  be  thus  degraded  and  enslaved,  instead  of  the  pity,  they  would 
meet  the  scorn  and  contempt  of  the  universe.  The  men  of  this  generation,  who 
would  be  responsible,  ought  to  be  whipped  through  their  fields  by  their  own  negroes. 
I  thank  God  that  there  is  no  one  in  my  district  that  I  think  so  meanly  of,  as  to  believe 
that  he  would  not  readily  come  into  whatever  movement  might  be  necessary  for  the 
protection  of  our  rights  and  liberty.  I  tell  northern  gentlemen,  who  are  in  hopes 
that  the  South  will  be  divided,  that  we  shall  not  have  half  as  many  traitors  to  hang, 
as  we  did  Tories  in  the  Revolution. 

If  gentlemen  mean  that  the  Union,  upon  the  principles  of  the  Constitution,  is 
desirable,  I  will  not  controvert  that  opinion.  But  the  Union  never  could  have  been 
formed  without  the  written  Constitution.  So,  if  you  now,  by  your  action,  practi- 
cally destroy  the  Constitution,  those  injured,  if  able  to  resist,  will  not  submit.  That 
instrument  was  ordained,  in  its  own  language,  to  "establish  justice,  insure  domestic 
tranquillity,  and  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty"  to  all  parties  to  it — namely,  the 
freemen  of  the  Union.  If,  therefore,  under  its  form,  gross  injustice  is  done,  insur- 
rections excited,  and  the  citizens  of  part  of  the  States  politically  enslaved,  then  the 
Union  ought  not  to  stand,  as  an  instrument  of  wrong  and  oppression. 

There  is  throughout  the  South  a  strong  attachment  to  the  Union  of  the  States. 
This  sentiment  rests  not  so  much  upon  any  calculations  of  interest  as  on  historic 
associations  and  the  recollections  of  common  ancestral  struggles  and  triumphs.  Our 
people  take  a  pride  in  the  name  of  the  United  States,  and  in  being  members  of  a 
great  republic  that  furnishes  a  cheering  example  to  the  friends  of  liberty  throughout 
the  world.  But  the  events  of  the  last  few  years  are  rapidly  weakening  this  feeling. 
Seeing  that  there  appeared  to  be  a  settled  purpose  in  the  North  to  put  them  to  the 
wall,  many  of  our  people,  regarding  a  dissolution  of  the  Union  as  the  inevitable 
result  of  this  aggression,  have  looked  forward  to  the  consequences  of  such  a  state  of 
things. 

I  will  tell  northern  gentlemen,  in  the  hope  that  many  of  them  are  not  yet  past  the 
point  of  reason,  what  is  the  view  presented  in  prospect  to  many  of  the  highest  intel- 
lects in  the  South.  It  is  well  known  that  the  existing  revenue  system  operates 
hardly  on  the  South  and  the  West.  The  Government  raises  upwards  of  thirty  mil- 
lions annually  by  a  duty  or  tax  upon  imports.  But  this  system  acts  very  unequally 
on  the  different  sections  of  the  country.  For  illustration  of  the  mode  of  operation,  I 
will  take  a  single  article.  Railroad  iron  is  produced  in  England  at  so  cheap  a  rate, 
that  it  can  be  brought  to  this  country  and  sold,  we  may  say,  for  $40  per  ton.*  This 
is  much  cheaper  than  our  people  can  afford  to  make  it  at.  They  therefore  ask  the 
Government  to  require  the  payment  of  $20  per  ton  by  way  of  duty.  The  importer, 
therefore,  instead  of  selling  for  $40  per  ton,  must  ask  $60,  to  reimburse  himself  for 
what  he  has  paid  out  abroad,  and  to  the  Government.  Every  person,  therefore,  in 
the  United  States,  who  purchases  railroad  iron,  has  to  pay  $20  more  for  each  ton. 
There  are,  however,  some  advantages  to  counterbalance  this  loss.  In  the  first 
place,  some  of  our  people,  finding  that  they  can  make  a  profit  by  selling  railroad 
iron  at  $60  per  ton,  engage  in  the  manufacture,  and  thus  find  employment.  While 
so  engaged,  these  persons  consume  the  produce  of  the  farmers  and  others,  and  thus 
make  a  home  market  for  agricultural  productions.     We  see,  however,  that  the  loss 

*  It  is  stated  in  the  proceedings  of  the  convention  of  iron  workers  recently  held  in  Albany,  New 
York,  that  some  of  the  English  establishments  deliver  bar  iron  on  tide  water  at  a  cost  ranging  from 
$17  to  $20  per  ton,  or  less  than  1  cent  per  pound  ;  Scotch  pig  iron  they  also  say  can  be  delivered  in 
New  York,  duties  off,  at  a  cost  not  exceeding  $14  to  $16  per  ton. 


10 

of  $20  per  ton  falls  on  all  those  in  any  part  of  the  United  States  who  may  consume 
the  iron.  But  the  benefit  is  confined  to  those  persons  who  are  engaged  in  making 
iron,  and  those  who  live  so  near  them  that  they  can  conveniently  get  their  produce 
to  the  factories.  In  fact,  this  sort  of  manufacturing  is  confined  to  the  State  of 
Pennsylvania,  and  perhaps  a  few  other  localities.  But  my  constituents  can  no  more 
pay  the  manufacturers  of  Pennsylvania  for  iron  in  the  production  of  their  farms, 
than  they  could  the  British  iron-masters.  It  is  therefore  to  our  advantage,  as  we 
must  pay  for  it  in  cash,  to  get  the  iron  at  the  lowest  rate.  This  is  true  of  the 
southern  and  western  people  generally.  This  illustrates  the  effect  of  our  revenue 
and  protective  system.  The  burden  is  diffused  over  the  whole  country,  but  the 
benefit  is  limited  to  the  manufacturers  and  to  those  persons  who  reside  so  near  as 
to  have  thereby  a  better  market;  very  little  more  than  one-third  of  the  Union  gets 
the  benefit  of  the  system,  in  exclusion  mainly  of  the  South  and  West. 

It  is  not  easy  to  measure  the  precise  extent  of  this  burden.  It  has  been  estimated 
that  two-thirds  of  all  the  articles  which  would,  if  imported,  be  subject  to  pay  a  duty, 
are  produced  in  the  United  States.  To  return,  for  ready  illustration,  to  the  case  of 
railroad  iron.  If  two  of  eveiy  three  tons  of  iron  consumed  in  the  United  States 
were  made  in  this  country,  it  would  follow  that  the  person  who  consumed  those  three 
tons  of  iron,  while  he  paid  twenty  dollars  to  the  Government  on  the  ton  imported, 
would  pay  forty  dollars  to  the  home  manufacturer;  and  if  he  lived  so  far  from  the 
manufacturer  that  he  could  not  pay  him  in  produce,  it  would  follow  that,  in  fact, 
while  he  paid  the  Government  but  twenty  dollars,  he  would  lose  sixty  himself  on 
account  of  the  duty.  When,  therefore,  the  Government  gets,  as  it  is  doing,  thirty- 
three  millions  of  dollars  revenue,  the  whole  burden  to  the  consumers  of  this  country 
would  be  one  hundred  millions  of  dollars;  of  this  amount  the  South  pays,  according  to  its 
population  and  consumption,  forty  millions  of  dollars.  This  sum  I  think  too  low  in  fact. 
In  the  Patent  Office  report,  made  to  the  last  session  of  Congress,  (the  last  one  published, 
it  is  stated  by  the  commissioner,  Mr.  Burke,  a  northern  man,  that  the  annual  value 
of  articles  manufactured  in  the  United  States  is  five  hundred  and  fifty  millions  of 
dollars.  This  statement  does  not  include  iron,  salt,  coal,  sugar,  wool,  the  products 
of  fisheries,  and  other  articles  on  which  a  duty  is  collected;  adding  these,  swells  the 
amount  to  nearly  seven  hundred  millions.  Our  imports  for  that  year  were  unusually 
large,  on  account  of  the  famine  abroad.  Nevertheless,  all  the  articles  imported,  on 
which  a  duty  is  collected,  including  the  above  omitted  in  the  statement  of  manufac- 
tures, are  in  value  only  one  hundred  and  eleven  millions  one  hundred  and  fifty-four 
thousand  three  hundred  and  fifteen  dollars.  It  thus  appears  that  the  amount  manu- 
factured in  the  country  is  more  than  six  times  that  imported.  It  is  not  pretended, 
however,  that  this  comparison  affords  a  proper  measure  of  the  amount  of  the  burden 
which  the  country  may  sustain;  and  that,  while  it  pays  to  the  Government  thirty- 
three  millions,  it  pays  two  hundred  to  the  manufacturers  indirectly,  thereby  making 
the  whole  loss  to  consumers,  in  the  first  instance,  two  hundred  and  thirty-three  mil- 
lions. Some  few  articles  are  manufactured  here  as  cheaply  as  they  can  be  else- 
where; and  a  very  large  number,  at  the  places  where  they  are  made,  are  cheaper 
to  the  consumer  than  would  be  the  foreign  article  when  transported  there.  It  is  also 
true,  however,  that  in  a  great  many  cases  the  consumer  loses  even  more  than  the 
whole  duty,  because  he  is  not  only  obliged  to  pay  it  to  the  manufacturer  or  refund  it 
to  the  importer,  but  also  a  profit  or  per  cent,  on  this  duty  to  each  trader  through 
whose  hands  the  article  passes  before  it  reaches  him.  In  other  instances,  the  price 
is  intermediate  between  what  it  would  be  without  any  duty,  and  that  which  it  would 
amount  to  by  the  addition  of  the  duty.  Want  of  accurate  knowledge  of  all  the  facts 
renders  it  impossible  to  determine  precisely  the  effect  which  our  revenue  system 
produces;  but  that  it  is  most  powerful  and  controlling  cannot  be  denied.  The  Gov- 
ernment actually  raises  more  tean  thirty  millions  per  year  by  these  duties.  The 
manufacturers,  who  certainly  are  interested  in  selling  their  productions  at  a  high 
rather  than  a  low  rate,  and  who  understand  their  true  interests,  attach  the  greatest 


11 

importance  to  the  tariff  system,  and  attribute  to  its  operation  effects  even  greater  than 
I  have  stated  them  to  be.  There  has  been  less  complaint  among  consumers,  be- 
cause the  cost  of  most  manufactured  articles  has  been  diminishing  from  time  to  time. 
This  fall  of  prices,  however,  is  partly  attributable  to  the  great  discoveries  made  dur- 
ing our  day  in  chemistry,  mechanism,  and  the  arts  generally,  by  which  these  arti- 
cles are  produced  with  much  more  facility.  It  is  also  attributable  to  the  comparative 
repose  of  the  world,  which  has  directed  capital  and  labor,  formerly  consumed  in 
wars,  to  industrial  pursuits.  Hence,  though  there  is  a  gradual  reduction  of  prices 
in  the  United  States,  yet  it  is  still  more  striking  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic. 
In  Great  Britain  particularly,  as  well  as  in  certain  portions  of  the  Continent,  such  is 
the  accumulation  of  capital,  and  so  great  the  number  of  laborers  who  are  obliged  to 
work  for  a  mere  subsistence,  that  prices  are  at  the  lowest  possible  rate.  We  have 
a  right  to  take  advantage  of  this  state  of  things,  just  as  the  Europeans  do  of  our 
cheap  production  of  cotton.  Instead  of  giving  us  half  a  dollar  a  pound,  as  they  used 
to  do,  they,  as  well  as  the  people  of  the  northern  States,  seem  glad  to  get  it  for  five 
cents  per  pound,  in  consequence  of  our  over  production  of  the  article.  We  have, 
•therefore,  a  natural  right  to  purchase  their  productions  at  the  lowest  rate  at  which 
we  can  obtain  them,  to  counterbalance  the  disadvantage  we  suffer  from  the  accumu- 
lation of  a  different  kind  of  capital  and  labor.  To  alleviate  this  burden,  we  of  the 
South  get  back  very  little  in  the  form  of  protection.  Why,  then,  have  southern 
men  been  willing  to  submit  to  a  system  so  unequal  in  its  operation  !  Because,  as  I 
have  formerly  had  occasion  to  state,  in  the  Convention  which  made  the  Federal 
Constitution  there  was  a  bargain  made  between  the  North  and  the  South,  that,  pro- 
vided they  wrould  allow  our  slaves  to  be  represented,  to  permit  importation  for  a 
time,  and  to  deliver  up  fugitives,  the  South  would,  on  its  part,  agree  that  a  majority 
of  Congress  might  have  power  to  pass  navigation  or  tariff  laws.  As  the  gift  of  the 
power  under  the  circumstances  necessarily  implied  that  it  was  to  be  exercised,  we 
felt  bound  in  honor  to  acquiesce  in  the  action  of  the  majority.  Because,  in  the  sec- 
ond place,  protection  to  such  extent  as  might  give  our  infant  manufactures  a  fair 
start,  was  calculated  to  advance  the  interest  of  the  nation  as  a  whole,  though  for 
the  time  it  might  bear  hardly  on  us.  And  because,  thirdly,  we  hoped  that  the 
southern  States  would  after  a  time  get  to  manufacturing  themselves,  as  their  interest 
required  them  to  do,  and  thus  eseape  the  burden.  It  was  thus  that  southern  gentle- 
men, even  after  the  North  had  partially  failed  to  pay  its  share  of  the  consideration, 
with  great  magnanimity  continued  to  sustain  the  system. 

The  manner  of  disbursement  is  also  adverse  to  our  interests.  Of  the  forty  odd 
millions  which  the  Government  purposes  to  disburse  this  year,  I  do  not  believe  that 
five  millions  will  in  any  way  be  expended  in  all  the  slaveholding  States.  North 
Carolina,  for  example,  is  burdened  to  the  extent  of  not  less  than  four  millions,  and 
yet  does  not  get  back  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  in  any  way  from  the  Govern- 
ment. The  clear  loss,  in  a  pecuniary  point  of  view,  on  account  of  the  action  of  the 
Government,  may  be  set  down  at  not  less  than  three  millions  annually.  The 
southern  States  generally  are  in  the  same  situation. 

What  would  be  our  condition  if  we  separated  from  the  North  ?  It  is  difficult  to 
determine  the  precise  amount  of  the  exports  of  the  slaveholding  States,  because  it  is 
not  practicable  to  arrive  at  the  exact  value  of  that  portion  which  is  sold  to  the  free 
States.  But  the  amount  of  our  leading  staples  being  pretty  well  known — I  mean 
cotton,  rice,  tobacco,  sugar,  &c. — we  can  arrive  at  the  whole  value  of  our  exports 
pretty  nearly.  They  cannot  fall  short  of  one  hundred  and  thirty  millions  of  dollars, 
and  this  year,  perhaps,  considerably  exceed  that  sum.  This  is  nearly  as  much  as 
the  whole  of  the  exports  of  the  United  States  to  foreign  countries.  It  must  be  remem- 
bered, however,  that  though  the  free  States  furnish  part  of  our  exports,  yet  that 
which  they  do  afford  is  scarcely  so  much  is  the  portion  of  our  own  products  which 
goes  to  them  for  consumption.     If,  therefore,  we  were  separated,  our  whole  exports 


12 

to  the  North  and  to  foreign  countries  generally,  would  be  equal  to  that  sum.  Of 
course  we  should  import  as  much,  and  in  fact  do  at  this  time  consume  as  much.  A 
duty  of  thirty  per  cent,  on  these  imports  (and  most  of  the  rates  of  the  present  tariff 
law  are  higher)  would  yield  a  revenue  of  nearly  forty  millions  of  dollars.  As  the 
prices  of  almost  all  manufactured  articles  are  regulated  03-  the  production  of  the  great 
workshops  of  Europe,  where  the  accumulation  of  capital  and  labor  keeps  down  pro- 
duction to  the  lowest  possible  rates,  I  have  no  doubt  but  that  sum  would  be  raised 
without  any  material  increase  of  the  prices  which  our  citizens  now  pay.  We  might 
therefore  expend  as  much  as  the  Government  of  the  United  States  ever  did  in  time 
of  peace,  up  to  the  beginning  of  General  Jackson's  administration,  and  still  have  on  ■ 
hand  twenty -five  millions  ol  dollars  to  devote  to  the  making  railroads,  opening  our 
harbors  and  rivers,  and  for  other  domestic  purposes.  Or,  by  levying  only  a  twenty 
per  cent,  duty,  which  the  northern  manufacturers  found  ruinous  to  them,  as  they 
said,  under  Mr.  Clay's  compromise  bill,  we  should  be  able  to  raise  some  twenty -five 
millions  of  dollars.  Half  of  this  sum  would  be  sufficient  for  the  support  of  our  army, 
navy,  and  civil  government.  The  residue  might  be  devoted  to  the  making  of  all  such 
improvements  as  we  are  now  in  want  of,  and  especially  chequering  our  country  over 
with  railroads.  Subjecting  the  goods  of  the  North  to  a  duty,  with  those  from  other 
foreign  countries,  would  at  once  give  a  powerful  stimulus  to  our  own  manufactures. 
Wo  have  already  sufficient  capital  for  the  purpose.  But  if  needed,  it  would  come 
in  from  abroad.  English  capitalists  have  filled  Belgium  with  factories.  Why  did 
this  occur  ?  Simply  because  provisions  were  cheaper  there  and  taxes  lower  than  in 
England.  The  same  motives  would  bring  them  into  the  southern  country,  since 
both  the  reasons  assigned  are  much  stronger  in  our  case.  It  has  already  been  proved 
that  we  can  manufacture  some  kinds  of  goods  more  cheaply  than  the  North.  In 
New  England,  too,  owing  to  her  deficient  agriculture,  every  thing  is  directed  to 
manufacturing,  and  the  system  is  strained  up  to  a  point  which  is  attended  with  great 
social  disadvantages,  so  as  to  retard  population.  In  the  South  it  need  not  be  so. 
The  climate  and  soil  are  very  favorable  to  agricultural  pursuits.  Our  slaves  might 
be  chiefly  occupied  on  the  farms,  while  the  poorer  class  of  our  population,  and  a 
portion  of  our  females,  could  be  advantageously  employed  in  manufacturing.  We 
should  thus  have  that  diversity  in  our  pursuits  which  is  most  conducive  to  the  pros- 
perity and  happiness  of  a  people. 

Our  carrying  trade  would  probably  for  a  time  be  in  the  hands  of  the  English  and 
other  foreigners.  This,  however,  would  not  be  to  our  disadvantage,  since  northern 
shipowners  now,  by  reason  of  the  monopoly  which  the  existing  law  gives  them,  charge 
as  much  for  freight  between  New  York  and  New  Orleans  as  they  do  to  Canton,  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  globe.  The  whole  amount  of  the  freight  on  southern  productions, 
received  by  the  North  has,  on  a  minute  calculation,  been  set  down  at  forty  millions  one 
hundred  and  eighty-six  thousand  seven  hundred  and  twenty-eight  dollars,  ($40,186,- 
728.)  The  whole  value  which  the  North  derives  from  its  southern  connexion  has  been 
estimated,  by  some  persons  most  familiar  with  these  statistics,  at  more  than  eighty-eight 
millions  of  dollars.  Whoever  looks  into  the  condition  of  the  different  States  prior  to 
the  formation  of  the  Union,  and  compares  it  with  their  situation  at  first,  under  low 
duties,  up  to  the  war  and  tariff  of  1816,  and  its  successors,  highly  protective  as  they 
have  been,  will  find  the  facts  fully  sustaining  the  opinions  I  have  expressed. 
Northern  writers  of  elementary  books,  made  for  school-children,  of  course  represent 
things  differently,  and  deceive  the  careless  and  ignorant.  My  opinions  on  these 
points  have  been  settled  for  a  long  while  past,  though  I  have  not  heretofore  been  in 
a  position  where  I  thought  I  could  exert  any  controlling  influence,  or  effect  any  de- 
sirable object,  by  giving  utterance  to  them. 

In  throwing  out  these  views,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  have  not  sought  the  utmost  degree 
of  precision,  but  I  have  no  doubt  but  that  all  the  facts  will  be  found  on  examination 
not  less  favorable  to  my  conclusions  than  I  have  stated  them.  My  purpose  now  is 
simply  to  present  to  northern  gentlemen  such  general  views  as  are  likely  now  to  be 


13 

adopted  by  the  South.  Your  course  of  aggression  is  already  arraying  against  you 
all  the  highest  minds  of  the  South — men  of  high  intellect,  and  higher  patriotism, 
whose  utter  indifference  to  all  personal  considerations  will  make  them,  in  the  lan- 
guage of  my  eloquent  friend  from  Georgia,  (Mr.  Toombs,)  "  devote  all  they  have 
and  all  they  are  to  this  cause." 

But  gentlemen  speak  of  the  difficulty  of  making  the  boundary;  and  the  condition 
of  the  border  States  of  Maryland  and  Kentucky  are  particularly  referred  to.  Un- 
doubtedly each  State  would  have  the  right  to  determine  for  itself  to  which  section 
of  the  Confederacy  it  would  belong.  If  these  two  States  were  to  unite  with  the 
North,  then,  as  it  would  not  be  possible  for  them  to  change  their  condition  immedi- 
ately with  respect  to  slavery,  if  they  ever  did,  they  would  for  many  years,  at  least, 
form  a  barrier  against  the  aggressions  of  the  free  States,  until,  in  short,  the  South 
would  have  become  too  great  and  powerful  to  need  such  aid.  I  take  it,  however, 
that  their  interest  would  lead  them  to  prefer  an  association  with  the  South.  With 
reference  to  fugitive  slaves,  Maryland  would  not  be  materially  worse  off  than  I  have 
shown  her  to  be,  if  she  were  not  in  fact  less  molested.  There  would,  however,  be 
some  great  countervailing  advantages.  She  is  in  advance  of  most  of  the  southern 
States  in  manufactures,  and  a  duty  on  northern  imports  would  give  her  for  the  time 
better  prices  on  such  things  as  now  come  from  the  North.  Baltimore  would,  per- 
haps, from  its  considerable  size  and  its  capital,  become  the  New  York  of  the  South. 
New  York  itself  must  at  once  lose  more  than  half  its  foreign  trade.  Charleston  and 
New  Orleans  would  expand  rapidly.  The  like  might  occur  to  the  cities  of  Virginia. 
Even  the  little  towns  on  the  eastern  coast  of  my  own  State  would  more  than  recover 
the  trade  which  they  had  prior  to  the  war  duties  and  the  tariff  of  1816.  The  north- 
ern tier  of  counties  in  Kentucky  would  perhaps  be  obliged  to  remove  their  slaves  to 
the  South.  But  there  would  be  to  her  advantages  in  the  change,  similar  to  those  of 
Maryland.  Kentucky  supplies  the  South  with  live  stock  to  a  great  extent;  but  she 
has  to  encounter  the  competition  of  Ohio  and  other  northwestern  States.  If  the  pro- 
ductions of  these  States  were  subjected  to  a  duty,  she  might  for  a  time  have  a  mono- 
poly in  the  trade.  I  would  do  injustice  to  these  two  States  if  I  supposed  that  they 
would  be  governed  solely  or  even  mainly  by  calculations  of  interest.  Maryland 
and  Kentucky  are  filled  with  as  courageous,  as  generous,  and  as  noble-minded  meji 
and  women  as  exist  on  earth;  and  following  their  bold  impulses,  they  would  make 
common  cause  with  their  oppressed  sisters  of  the  South,  and,  if  necessary,  take  their 
places  where  the  blows  might  fall  thickest,  in  the  front  of  the  column,  with  the  same 
high  feelings  that  animated  their  ancestors  on  the  battle-fields  of  the  Revolution. 
Rather  than  that  they  should  separate  from  us,  I  think  it  far  more  probable  that 
some  of  the  northwestern  free  States  would  find  it  to  their  advantage  to  go  with  the 
South.  But  we  have  been  threatened  that  the  North  will  take  possession  of  the 
Lower  Mississippi.  The  British  tried  that  in  1815,  but  found  Andrew  Jackson  and 
some  of  the  southwestern  militiamen  in  the  way.  In  the  thirty -five  rears  that  have 
since  passed,  those  States  have  become  populous  and  strong,  and  would  doubtless  be 
able  to  protect  their  waters  from  aggression.  The  southern  States  having  now  a 
free  population  of  six  millions,  and  producing  in  succession  such  soldiers  as  Wash- 
ington, Jackson,  Scott,  and  Taylor,  need  have  no  serious  fears  of  foreign  aggression. 

I  submit  it,  then,  Mr.  Chairman,  calmly  to  northern  gentlemen,  that  they  had 
better  make  up  their  minds  to  give  us  at  once  a  fair  settlement;  not  cheat  us  by  a 
mere  empty  form,  without  reality,  but  give  something  substantial  for  the  South. 
We  might  acquiesce  in  the  Missouri  compromise  line.  I  should  individually  prefer, 
under  all  the  circumstances,  giving  up  the  whole  of  California,  provided  we  could  have 
all  on  this  side  of  it,  up  to  about  the  parallel  of  40°,  not  far  from  the  northern  line 
of  the  State  of  Missouri,  rather  than  its  southern — 36°  30'.  We  would  thus,  by  get- 
ting the  whole  of  New  Mexico,  and  having  the  mountain  chain  and  desert  on  the 
west,  obtain  a  proper  frontier.  We  might  then  acquire,  at  some  future  day,  whether 
united  or  divided,  possession  of  the  country  along  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  well  suited 


14 

to  be  occupied  by  our  slave  population.  I  mean,  sir,  that  no  restriction  ought  to  be 
imposed  by  Congress  on  this  territory,  but  that  after  it  has  been  left  open  to  all 
classes  for  a  proper  period,  the  majority  may  then,  when  they  make  a  State  consti- 
tution, determine  for  themselves  whether  they  will  permit  slavery  or  not.  The 
South  will  acquiesce  in  any  reasonable  settlement. 

But  when  we  ask  for  justice,  and  to  be  let  alone,  we  are  met  by  the  senseless  and 
insane  cry  of  "  Union,  union  !"  Sir,  I  am  disgusted  with  it.  When  it  comes  from 
northern  gentlemen  who  are  attacking  us,  it  falls  on  my  ears  as  it  would  do  if  a  band 
of  robbers  had  surrounded  a  dwelling,  and  when  the  inmates  attempted  to  resist,  the 
assailants  should  raise  the  shout  of  "  Peace — union — harmony  !"  If  they  will  do 
us  justice,  we  do  not  need  their  lectures.  As  long  as  they  refuse  it,  their  declara- 
tions seem  miserable,  hypocritical  cant.  When  these  things  come  from  southern 
men,  I  have  even  less  respect  for  them.  Even  the  most  cowardly  men,  when 
threatened  with  personal  injury,  do  not  usually  announce  in  advance  that  they  mean 
to  submit  to  all  the  chastisement  which  an  adversary  may  choose  to  inflict.  And 
those  persons  who,  seeing  the  aggressive  attitude  of  the  North,  and  its  numerical 
power,  declare  in  advance  that  for  their  parts  they  intend  to  submit  to  whatever  the 
majority  may  do,  are  taking  the  best  course  to  aid  our  assailants,  and  need  not  won- 
der if  the  country  regards  them  as  enemies  of  the  South. 

If  northern  gentlemen  will  do  us  justice  on  this  great  question,  we  may  consent 
to  submit  to  lesser  evils.  We  may  acquiesce  in  a  most  oppressive  revenue  system. 
We  may  tolerate  a  most  unequal  distribution  of  the  public  expenditures.  We  may 
bear  the  loss  of  our  fugitive  slaves,  incurred  because  the  Legislatures  of  the  north- 
ern States  have  nullified  an  essential  provision  of  the  Constitution,  without  which 
the  Union  could  not  have  been  formed,  because  mere  pecuniary  considerations  are 
not  controlling  with  us.  We  may  even  permit  such  portions  of  the  northern  people 
as  are  destitute  of  proper  self-respect,  to  send  up  here  occasionally  representatives 
whose  sole  business  seems  to  be  to  irritate  as  much  as  possible  southern  feeling,  and 
pander  to  the  prejudices  of  the  worst  part  of  the  northern  community.  We  may  allow 
that  the  northern  States  shall  keep  up  and  foster  in  their  bosoms  abolition  societies, 
whose  main  purpose  is  to  scatter  firebrands  throughout  the  South,  to  incite  servile 
insurrections,  and  stimulate,  by  licentious  pictures,  our  negroes  to  invade  the  per- 
sons of  our  white  women.  But  if,  in  addition  to  all  these  wrongs  and  insults,  you 
intend  lo  degrade  and  utterly  ruin  the  South,  then  we  resist.  We  do  not  love 
you,  people  of  the  North,  well  enough  to  become  your  slaves.  God  has  given  us 
the  power  and  the  will  to  resist.  Our  fathers  acquired  our  liberty  by  the  sword, 
and  with  it,  at  every  hazard,  we  will  maintain  it.  But  before  resorting  to  that  in- 
strument, I  hold  that  all  constitutional  means  should  be  exhausted.  It  is,  sir,  a  wise 
provision  of  ProvidenceTRat  less  force  is  required  to  resist  an  attack  than  to  make 
it.  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  has  been  well  framed  on  these  principles. 
While,  therefore,  a  majority  is  necessary  to  pass  a  measure,  one-fifth  of  the  mem- 
bers may  demand  the  yeas  and  nays.  In  spite,  therefore,  of  any  change  of  rule 
which  the  majority  can  make,  as  long  as  this  constitutional  provision  stands,  a  mino- 
rity of  one-fifth  or  more,  if  firm,  and  sustained  by  the  people  at  home,  can  stop  the 
wheels  of  the  Government.  If  it  is  ascertained  that  no  proper  settlement  can  be 
gotten  of  the  Territorial  question,  it  would  be  in  the  power  of  the  southern  members 
to  defeat  all  the  appropriation  bills,  and  bring  the  Government  to  a  dead  halt.  Per- 
haps it  might  be  well  to  give  such  a  cup  to  northern  gentlemen  ;  for  I  well  remem- 
ber that  when  the  civil  and  diplomatic  appropriation  bill  was  under  consideration, 
with  the  amendment  from  the  Senate  known  as  Walker's,  which  would  have  settled 
the  question  of  slavery  in  the  Territories,  a  number  of  northern  gentlemen  resolved 
to  defeat  that  bill  and  all  other  business  by  constantly  calling  for  the  yeas  and  nays, 
if  they  did  not  succeed  in  striking  out  that  amendment.  I  recollect  perfectly,  that 
while  I  was  pressing  a  Pennsylvania  member  to  vote  against  striking  out  that  amend- 


15 

ment,  which  was  the  pending  motion,  a  member  of  high  standing  from  Massachu 
setts  said  to  me,  "  You  need  not  give  yourself  any  trouble  about  this  matter  ;  if  we 
do  not  succeed  in  changing  it,  we  shall  prevent  its  adoption  by  having  the  yeas  and 
nays  on  motions  to  adjourn,  and  calls  of  the  House,  till  the  end  of  the  session." 
From  similar  declarations  made  to  me  by  a  number  of  northern  gentlemen,  as  I 
went  through  the  House,  I  had  no  doubt  but  that,  as  he  said,  enough  had  agreed  to 
have  enabled  them  to  effect  their  purpose,  if  the  motion  to  change  the  character  of  the 
amendment  had  failed.  It  is  not  long  since,  too,  that  another  citizen  of  Massachu- 
setts (Mr.  John  Davis)  defeated  the  two  million  bill  then  pending  in  the  Senate, 
by  speaking  till  the  end  of  the  session.  As  northern  gentlemen  have  therefore  been 
accustomed  to  this  mode  of  resistance  to  such  measures  as  they  do  not  like,  I  take 
it  that  they  would  hardly  complain  of  this  kind  of  retaliation. 

I  tell  gentlemen  that,  if  we  cannot  in  advance  get  a  fair  settlement  of  this  question, 
I  should  be  pleased  to  see  the  civil  and  diplomatic  bill,  the  army  and  navy  bill,  and 
all  other  appropriations,  fail.  We  should  thereby  make  every  officer  and  every  ex- 
pectant of  public  money  directly  interested  in  having  justice  done  to  the  South.  It 
would  be  far  better  'o  have  this  temporary  inconvenience  for  a  year  or  two,  than 
that  we  should  see  a  bloody  revolution,  or  something  worse.  I  hold  it  to  be  the 
duty  of  every  southern  representative  to  stay  here  and  prevent,  till  the  close  of  our 
official  term,  the  passage  of  any  measures  that  might  tend  to  force  our  people  to  un- 
just submission.  In  the  mean  time,  the  southern  States  could,  in  convention,  take 
such  steps  as  might  be  necessary  to  assert  their  right  to  a  share  in  the  public  territo- 
ry. If  this  interregnum  were  to  continue  long,  it  might  drive  both  sections  to  make 
provisional  governments,  to  become  permanent  ones  in  the  end. 

But  it  is  advised,  in  certain  portions  of  the  northern  press,  that  the  members  from 
that  section  ought  to  expel  such  as  interrupt  their  proceedings.  Let  them  try  the 
experiment.  I  tell  gentlemen,  that  this  is  our  slaveholding  territory.  We  do  not 
intend  to  leave  it.  If  they  think  they  can  remove  us,  it  is  a  proper  case  for  trial. 
In  the  presen'  temper  of  the  public  mind,  it  is  probable  that  a  collision  of  the  kind 
here  might  electrify  the  country,  as  did  the  little  skirmish  at  Lexington  the  colonies 
in  their  then  excited  state.  Such  a  struggle,  whoever  might  prove  the  victors  in  it, 
would  not  leave  here  a  quorum  to  do  business.  Gentlemen  may  call  this  treason — 
high  treason — the  highest  treason  ever  known.  But  their  words  are  idle.  We 
shall  defeat  their  movement  against  us.  But  even  if  I  thought  otherwise,  I 
would  still  resist.  Sooner  than  submit  to  what  they  propose,  I  would  rather  see  the 
South,  like  Poland,  under  the  iron  heel  of  the  conqueror.  I  would  rather  that  she 
should  find  the  fate  of  Hungary. 

It  was  but  the  other  day,  and  under  our  own  eyes,  that  the  gallant  Hungarians 
asserted  their  independence.  Though  in  the  midst  of,  and  struggling  against 
those  two  immense  empires,  that  could  bring  more  than  a  million  of  armed  men  into 
the  field,  they  were  successful  at  first  in  beating  down  the  power  of  Austria.  It  was 
not  until  some  of  her  sons  became  traitors  that  Hungary  was  finally  overpowered, 
borne  down,  and  pressed  to  death  by  the  long  columns  and  gigantic  strength  of  Rus- 
sia.    If  necessary,  let  such  be  our  fate. 

"Better  be 
Where  the  extinguished  Spartans  still  are  free, 
In  their  proud  charnel  of  Thermopylae." 

Rather  let  the  future  traveller,  as  he  passes  over  a  blackened  and  desert  waste,  at 
least  exclaim,  "Here  lived  and  died  as  noble  a  race  as  the  sun  ever  shown  upon." 
If  we  were  to  wait  until  your  measures  were  consummated  and  your  coil,  like  that 
of  a  great  serpent,  was  completely  around  us,  then  we  might  be  crushed.  Seeing 
the  danger,  we  have  the  wisdom  and  the  courage  to  meet  the  attack  now,  while  we 
have  the  power  to  resist.     We  must  prove  victors  in  this  struggle..    If  we  repel  the 


16 


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wave  of  aggression  now^  we  shall  have  peace.     The  abolitionists  defeated  before  the 
country  on  the  main  issue,  will  not  have  pffwer  to  molest  us. 

I  have  thus,  sjr,  frankly  spoken  my  opinions  on  this  great  question,  with  no  pur- 
pose to  menace,  but  only  to  warn.  Gentlemen  of  the  North  ought  themselves  to  see, 
that,  while  submission  to  what  they  propose  would  be  ruinous  to  us,  it  would'  not  id 
the  end  be  beneficial  to  their  section.  Seeing,  then,  the  issue  in  all  its  bearings, 
is  for  them  to  decide!  They  hold  in  their  hands  the  destiny  of  the  existing  Gover 
ment.  Should  circumstances  divide  us,  I  wish  that  you  may  prosper.  From  all  i 
knowledge  of  the  elements  of  your  society,  I  have  doubts.  That  we  shall,  underj 
favor  of  Providence,  in  all  events,  take  care  of  ourselves,  I  have  no  fears.  In  con 
sion,  I  have  to  say,  do  us  justice  and  we  contine  to  stand  with  you;  attemjJ 
trample  on  us,  and  we  part  company. 


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